Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

When Mr Rann was asked about this ban on non-union members of the media reporting on the ALP conference in Adelaide, Mr Rann said: ‘If you join a union, you’ll be allowed in.’ That is a closed shop. It is illegal now, but this is a harbinger of what we would expect to see if the ALP were elected to government in Australia. It is equally weak of the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition. All the Leader of the Opposition could say about this ridiculous ban was: ‘We stand shoulder to shoulder with the union movement in our struggle for industrial relations.’ The Leader of the Opposition said about Mr Rann on Sunday: ‘If the future has a face, it’s Mike’s.’ If this is the face of the future, heaven help the economy of Australia! This is a return to the closed shop; a return to no ticket, no start; a return to compulsory unionism in Australia. Indeed, if Mr Rann and the Leader of the Opposition get their way, then the only choice for employees and workers in Australia will be: ‘Join a union if you want to get a job’—and that is absolutely no choice for Australian workers. It is very simple: a future under Mr Rann and under this weak Leader of the Opposition is a future in which there is no choice.

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